Of Babysitting and Disney Features
by TagTheScullion
Summary: Nico loves babysitting for his sister and brother in law. A weekend during Nico's spring break, Hazel and Frank go on a trip and leave their daughter to her favourite uncle's care. Although babysitting wasn't usually a hard thing to do, Nico realises there's a tiny detail his sister forgot to tell him. Based on Viria's art (or Boaillustrations's?).


**Hello again, fellas. The other day I was exploring Tumblr and I saw a drawing by Viria (the cover image), so thought I'd get my shot at writing a short story about it. As always, I hope you like it :)**

 **PJO isn't mine, and neither is the story's cover image.**

* * *

Nico was quite happy to babysit his niece. He'd always been. When Hazel and Frank had got married, the only thing Nico had wished for was for his sister to have children.

Surprisingly, kids tended to like Nico. They didn't seem afraid, rather the opposite, they sought him to chase nightmares away, assuming perhaps that his overall gloominess was due to fighting the evil darkness.

The 22-year-old university student, recently arrived to Vancouver for his spring break, was standing next to the door, holding his toddler niece.

"I know the emergency numbers," he assured his sister and brother-in-law. "And I've your timetable for her meals and bedtimes. It's only a weekend!"

"I don't want to trouble you if anything happens," Hazel said. "We've never left her for longer than a couple of hours."

"The more reason for you two to go and enjoy," Nico shook his head amusedly. "I've babysat her a million times, nothing can go wrong."

Hazel and Frank were taking a weekend off from parenting. Frank had pulled some strings and got himself a lovely cabin in Waterton Lake; at first they were going to take the kid with them, but reluctantly, they accepted they needed to take care of themselves after three years and a half of nonstop running after their daughter.

Hazel hugged him and her child one more time, and Frank ruffled his daughter's hair and patted Nico on the shoulder.

"Thank you," the big guy smiled as he crossed the threshold holding a suitcase with ease.

After closing the door of the house, Nico turned to his niece.

"You _have_ to be at least a tad relieved, _principessa_ ," he chuckled. "Hazel means well but she needs to relax a bit."

"Of course," he continued, as if the little girl could understand everything. "She's a first time parent. So is your dad, obviously. They're testing the waters with you."

He sat the girl in the sofa, and sat himself next to her. He sat his computer on the coffee table and asked, "Would you rather watch The Beauty and the Beast, or Rapunzel?"

"Rapunzel!" the child giggled.

"Tangled it is," he nodded and started the film. "So, like I was saying, your parents have no idea how to act with you, because you're their first. _La mia mamma_ didn't have that trouble with me, because I was a second child..."

The girl stared quietly at the screen.

"She was a lot more relaxed," Nico kept going. "Or she would've been if there hadn't been a war going on."

"What's a war?" she stared blankly at her uncle.

"When many people fight," he replied. "It's bad; you should wish to never be in one."

"What do the people fight about?" the little girl insisted.

"Many things, it depends," he thought for a second. "Like, do you remember Mulan?"

"My daddy says he don't like the songs in that movie," his niece stated.

Nico laughed, children were like drunk little people. Careless of what they said, and with no line of conversation.

" _Doesn't_ ," he corrected. "He _doesn't_ like those songs because Jason and Percy used to sing 'I'll Make a Man Out of You' every time he entered a room."

"Because he's Chinese like Mulan?"

"In a way," Nico offered. Seeing his niece frowning, he hastily added, "But they didn't do it as a mean thing, _principessa_. They were joking. Like when Percy was in the beach Piper sings 'Under the Sea', and whenever we go watch a superhero movie we make Jason dress as Captain America."

"Like when they ask you to make that Hades voice?" she wondered.

"Yeah," he smirked. "Bet my father loves that."

"What?"

"Nothing. Why don't you watch the movie, now?" he suggested, as if offering a huge deal. "I'll make some dinner, whatever you need, shout and I'll come."

"Mommy don't like shouting in the house," the preschooler looked at him, disbelievingly.

"Mommy _doesn't_ like yelling," he conceded. "But she isn't here, is she?"

The girl shook her head.

"I'll leave the kitchen door open," he pointed to the door on the left. "If you prefer not to shout, whatever you need come and ask."

She nodded.

Nico didn't want to make anything complicated, so he just put some water to boil on a casserole, and some tomato sauce in the microwave oven.

After ten minutes, or so, he began to get this unshakeable feeling. His niece wasn't usually a difficult kid, but she was definitely talkative. She was surely very into her movie if she hadn't come into the kitchen to question something or other.

Carefully, he peaked through the door. The movie kept going on, but the sofa was empty.

His heart started beating quickly. And he stepped into the living room.

" _Principessa_?" he said out loud. "Kid, I'm okay with playing hide and seek later but you shouldn't just disappear, yeah?"

No answer.

As fast as he could he ran to the kitchen and turned off the stove. He stumbled out of the kitchen door to find his niece sitting cross-legged on the floor between the couch and the coffee table.

" _Principessa_! Where were you? You scared me," Nico frowned.

The little girl shrugged, "I didn't move."

Nico raised an eyebrow, it was unlike the child to lie, Hazel and Frank had done a fairly good job on that aspect. Lies weren't tolerated, nor usually said at all in the household.

"You weren't there a minute ago," he crossed his arms.

She looked questioningly at him, "I was, you are bad at looking."

Hesitantly, Nico decided to let the matter drop. Insisting would lead him nowhere; as honest as the kid was, she was also stubborn as a mule and wouldn't change her mind for anything.

* * *

The next afternoon, Nico decided to get some work done. As lovely as being away was, he had midterm exams coming up little time after he returned, and sitting for them with a rusty head was a terrible plan.

He was reading some biology theory when he felt a tug on his arm.

"Yes, _principessa_?"

"Uncle, can we watch a movie?"

"Now?" Nico asked. He didn't really mind, though. "I would if I could, but I can't, so I shan't."

She looked at him confusedly.

" _I_ can't, I've homework to do," he explained. " _You_ , on the other hand, can do whatever you want. As long as it's not dangerous. And your mom doesn't disapprove of it."

"So," his niece smiled winningly. "Can I watch the frog movie?"

"The..." he stuttered, then it hit him. "The Princess and the Frog?"

His niece nodded.

"Yeah, sure," he grabbed the little girl's hand, and led her to the couch. He found the DVD -one of Hazel's first attempts to understand the world she became part of all those years ago-.

After a short while, he went to see how his niece was doing.

He found her sitting with her short legs on the coffee table, drinking from her milk cup. He couldn't help but chuckle.

She turned her head at the sound, "It would be funny to be a frog," she told him seriously.

He made a face, "You'd be sticky, and green."

"The sticky thing is _mucus_ ," she responded, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Nico wondered where she'd learnt that. "And I have it on my nose when it's cold anyway."

Nico shook his head and went back to his text books.

Half an hour later he decided a bathroom break was much needed. What he didn't expect was to open the bathroom door to a frog sitting on the bath.

"What in Hades?" he muttered. In a louder voice he spoke to the outside of the room. " _Principessa_ , even if you want to be a frog, bringing one into the house is _not_ a brilliant idea."

Wincing with disgust, he grabbed some toilet paper and took the animal in his hands.

"Gross, gross, gross," he repeated, as he tried to pry the backdoor open with his foot.

Finally he managed to turn the doorknob and to deposit the animal on the grass outside the house.

He was taken out of his study-stupor as he heard the final scene's song playing on the room beside his.

"Kid," he stated, standing up. "You've been awfully qui... _WHAT_?"

Staring bemusedly at him from the living room's window was his niece, wet from head to toe from the spring drizzle.

"Kid!" Nico cried opening the window and letting the girl in. "What are you doing outside? How did you get out? You don't even know how to open this window!"

"You said no frogs _inside_ the house," she replied simply.

"So you went outside to talk to your frog-buddy from earlier?"

"The frog wasn't my friend," she shook her head, as if not understanding what he meant.

"It doesn't matter," he stated, slightly exasperated. "Let's give you a bath, you're all muddy. You'll catch a cold otherwise," he added seeing as she was about to protest.

* * *

That night, Nico tucked his niece for bedtime. The girl, tight like a burrito called for him as he was plugging in the star-shaped nightlight.

"Can you tell me a story?" she asked.

"I'm terrible at story-telling," he apologised. "Sorry, kid, no can do."

"Can we watch a movie then?" she asked sitting up.

"Another one?" he feigned terrible shock to the idea of a second movie that day. "But it's already your bedtime!"

"Please," the little girl begged. "Mommy don't have to find out!"

"Mommy _doesn't_ have to," he agreed. "But she probably will anyway, because mothers have that superpower."

It took Nico little to no time to give in into the girl's demands. It wasn't as if anything bad could happen from her watching a film.

Nico sat on Hazel and Frank's bed, his niece laid lazily beside him.

"I want the one with the curly haired princess," she said.

"The redheaded girl?"

"Yes, the one with the strange accent," she nodded.

Nico fell into a light sleep during the movie. He woke up to a grumble close to him. He didn't fully open his eyes, it was dark, the movie had finished, and he was sleepy.

A louder groan made him wake up fully. That didn't sound like a 3-year-old. He tried to find his niece with his hand and found a furry thing. Had she brought her stuffed animal? He was sure they'd left it on her room.

He sat up warily, only for his heart to do a double jump. There was a bear cub next to him.

"Holy... What's going on?" he tried. "Kid? _Principessa_?!"

He got up as quickly and quietly as he could and ran outside of the room, locking the bear inside.

He ran to the phone and dialled Hazel, " _HAZEL_?"

"It's three in the morning, what's wrong?" she replied thickly.

"Hazel... I think a bear ate your daughter," he said fretfully.

"You let _what_ happen?!" she asked in an alarmed voice.

"I didn't! It just appeared! Inside the house, and I can't find your kid, and..."

A thumping stopped Nico on his tracks. He dropped the phone on the table and slowly made his way to the main bedroom. Someone was knocking on the door.

"Uncle!" a small voice cried. "Uncle!"

"K... Kid?" he asked shell-shocked.

He opened the door as fast as he could, grabbed his niece and locked the door again.

"You didn't answer! And the bear... How did you beat the bear?"

Nico walked to the table, took the phone again and said, "Hazel?"

"There you are!" she replied swiftly. "Where had you gone to? You can't just calmly announce my daughter was killed by a bear and then leave!"

"She wasn't," he reassured his sister. "I thought, but she's here."

"Wait a minute," Hazel breathed calmly. "You didn't _see_ her get eaten by a bear?"

"I... No," he denied. "I thought... One minute she was there and then a bear appeared, and..."

Hazel laughed.

Nico didn't.

"This is funny _how_?"

"I forgot to tell you, with you being away and all. Not long ago we found out that my daughter, just as my husband," she explained. "Turns into animals."

Nico looked at his niece, then stared at the wall silently.

"Mommy?" the little girl spoke to the phone. "Uncle Nico is looking at the wall."

"She turns into animals?" he mumbled.

"And he's talking to himself," she told her mother.

* * *

Later that night, or morning by then, Nico -once again- tucked his niece in for bed.

"The frog, in the bathroom," he spoke for the first time in a couple of hours. "That was you?"

"Yes," she giggled happily. "And the chameleon."

"There was no chameleon in the bathroom," he shook his head.

"Not in the bathroom, silly," she said. "In the sofa, when you said I wasn't there!"

* * *

The next afternoon, after Nico had left Vancouver to go to New York, he sat on a Starbuck's table with Percy and Annabeth.

"Can't believe neither Hazel nor Frank told you!" Annabeth commented as Percy bursted into laughter again.

"Thank the gods the worst thing was a bear. Imagine if I'd offered her to watch How to Train Your Dragon!" Nico said exasperatedly.

Annabeth smiled. What a strange family they had.

* * *

 **As you can see, I avoided giving the girl a name. At first I did call her something, but then I thought it was better for everyone to just decide themselves what Hazel and Frank would've named their daughter.**


End file.
